12 SIMPLE STEPS TO INCREDIBLY BIG IDEAS

1) Diverge: Use multiple forms of external stimuli to generate a long list of random thoughts, words and feelings. You can find these external stimuli through photo association, scavenger hunts, and line drawings for a few examples.

2) Converge: Provide the guests with a clearly articulated task. Guests should never be given the task in advance, or the “diverge” portion of the process will be compromised. Ask the guests to use the long list of random thoughts, words and feelings as “spring boards” to solve the task at hand. Not everything on the random list of words will work, so just focus on the words that are easily transformed into ideas.

3) All ideas have value: Ensure that everyone shares their thoughts with the rest of the group … no matter how “out there” the idea might seem. There is a reason why things pop into your brain! It also maintains the creative momentum of the group, since other guests will “piggyback” on the idea.

4) Teams: Whenever possible invite enough people to the brainstorming session so that you can create at least a couple of teams. This will increase your creative output while ensuring that everyone is actively participating in the session … plus, a little healthy competition never hurt either!

6) Fun = Success! Bring along some toys. Children do most of their learning through playing with toys. When we become adults we often lose touch with that inner child that sees things as brand new and with endless possibilities. Fun is a critical element in the creative process. It is a fact that people are the most creative when they are having fun.

7) Paper: Bring and use lots! Dry erase boards get recycled and ideas can be lost if you use them. Make sure someone is writing down all of the ideas with different colored markers on big sheets of paper, on an easel that is easy to see. This provides the group with visual stimulation for new ideas as well as a record of all of the ideas!

8) The role of physical movement: This is hugely underestimated by most facilitators. It‘s CRUCIAL that you get people “into action”. Let them search for something, do something, but get them OUT of their chairs.

9) Music: Can also help stimulate creativity in a brainstorming session. Use it as often as you can.

10) Enthusiasm: Is a very important ingredient! The facilitator must be the “spark” and the group will follow, and “feed” on the energy.

11) Negativity cramps creativity: Create a “parking lot” on an easel in the corner of the room for use as a catch all for negative thoughts. Anyone who thinks of a reason an idea wont work, must write it on a post it note and stick it in the “parking lot”. Negativity will sabotage creative thinking.

12) Fresh Faces: Always invite new people to the session … particularly if they know nothing about the client. Often the best and most original ideas come from people who can see the task from an unencumbered perspective.

PLAYFULNESS – GETTING TO BETTER SOLUTIONS

It’s not new, but it serves as a fabulous reminder to keep playfulness top of mind when we are doing brainstorming and creative problem solving.

Brown suggests that the variation in responses between children and adults is evidence that we fear judgment by our peers in adulthood. We may have a wild (and perhaps even genius) idea floating around in our head, but we’re afraid to share it with those around us due to our fear of judgment. And this fear is what causes adults to become conservative in our thinking. As children grow older, they become more sensitive to the opinions of others, and the freedom to be playful and creative is replaced with self-consciousness and fear of embarrassment.

Playfulness … approaching situations in an exploratory manner … allows us to see the lighter side of a challenge … to view it with a sense of humour, and it enables flexible thinking.

But life can’t be all play, all the time. Even for kids, there are unwritten, agreed-upon rules about when, where and how to play. Brown concludes with a hypothesis that in creative work we go through two modes:

Generative mode – play, idea marinating, inspiration seeking and,

DO mode – coming back together to look for and create the solution.

This is divergence and convergence in its true form! For the BEST creative thinking, it’s not an either/or thing.

It has to be an AND!

We would love to hear from you! Leave us a comment down below.

For brainstorming tips and creative thinking hacks, be sure to follow Barefoot Brainstorming on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

NEGATIVITY CRAMPS CREATIVITY, EVERY TIME!

The most dangerous guest in a brainstorming session is the one who immediately dismisses an idea (often before it’s even completely verbalized).

The problem with a person like this is the negativity that he or she brings to the group. Not only is that single idea treated unfairly, but the other team members will begin to feel hesitant about sharing their ideas for fear of being shut down. A team that holds back any ideas will suffer a lack of genuine creativity in their brainstorming.

When judgment is made about someone’s idea before it has had a chance to be explored or discussed, the group automatically misses out on any possibilities for improving on that idea and possibly incorporating it into a clever solution.

Some tricks to removing negativity during a session include creating a “NO” parking zone. This is where you write down all of your negative thoughts on small sticky notes and collect them on a “NO” parking zone sheet. This ensures that there is no interruption in the flow of the creative session. You can then deal with all of the “NO” parking notes after the session has been adjourned.

Another suggestion is to make the most negative person in the room responsible for the “NO” parking zone. It’s a great way to keep them busy, and put them on the other side of the task at hand!

Finally, don’t allow the group to get stuck in the executional mud! The definition of success in a brainstorming session is to generate as many big ideas as possible in the time allotted … not to figure out all the ways those ideas might fail!

We would love to hear from you! How do you deal with negative comments while brainstorming? Leave us a comment down below.

For brainstorming tips and creative thinking hacks, be sure to follow Barefoot Brainstorming on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Yesterday, Frank Palmer was featured in a Strategy Daily article, with the headline ‘Fun with Frank’.

I adore Frank Palmer … I am not sure I have ever told him that, but Frank is my mentor, my hero … my superman in the ad business.

After reading the ‘Fun with Frank’ article a couple of times … my memories of gut wrenching, side splitting, cheek aching laughter came flooding back to me, and you can guess who was at the centre of it all … Frank Palmer!

I was a young kid starting my first big, real, intimidating advertising agency job in August of 1989 at Vickers and Benson. I had been hired as an Account Manager on the McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada business.

Back then, the McDonald’s business was divided up regionally. Vickers and Benson had the assignment for both Ontario and National. Cossette had Quebec, and Frank Palmer (Palmer Jarvis) had the west.

I had been with V&B for 1 week when the word came down from above that all of us were invited to the mothership (McDonald’s head office in Chicago), to receive our 10 year anniversary award. As much as this was an award for V&B, all of the heads of the other regional agencies were also invited … and yes of course this included Frank Palmer.

When we all arrived at the hotel in Chicago, a message for each us had been left from Frank to meet him in his suite at 4:00pm that afternoon. We figured it was all about acceptance speeches and seating arrangements for the big, formal, gala dinner that evening (when were to receive our award).

When we entered Frank’s suite we were shocked to see 50 sets of red long johns laid out on the bed … each pair featuring the yellow McDonald’s arches next to the hammer and sickle. There were also 50 matching grey ‘Russian’ fur hats with the McDonald’s logo on them.

We were all asked to select our size, take them to our rooms and put them on for the dinner.

As I mentioned, that was the big, formal, black tie, huge Chicago hotel ballroom affair. Of course, that was exactly why Frank did it. Plus the fact that George Cohen had just opened the first McDonald’s in Red Square, and as the Canadians, Frank wanted us to show the world how proud we were!

After picking up our long johns, we had about an hour before dinner. Some of the more creative and inventive Canadians headed to the dollar store to buy gold brocade and sequins … anything they could lay their hands on to ‘glam up’ the underwear they were about to wear to dinner.

One incredibly creative Canadian somehow managed to find a location where they could have stickers produced in under an hour. In the picture you can see some of the guests donning the white circular stickers with black writing. Each sticker read – ‘Thanks Frank Palmer … no one asked me to dance!’

Take a look at the 3rd row from the floor, on the far right hand side … there he is … Frank Palmer sporting the devilish grin that defines him.

Thanks Frank Palmer, you were right … no one asked me to dance, but you taught me everything I know about the business … including the most important part … how to have fun!

We would love to hear from you! Leave us a comment down below.

For brainstorming tips and creative thinking hacks, be sure to follow Barefoot Brainstorming on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.